Domestic Europe vs. Overseas Clothing Suppliers

A classic question when looking for suppliers if you plan to manufacture or wholesale is whether you want to source domestically or from overseas.

Overseas can refer to any location overseas but since the readership of this site is mostly Europe, when we refer to overseas suppliers, we are referring to clothing manufacturers in countries like India, China, and Taiwan.

You likely already know that it’s almost always cheaper to source your products overseas but there’s a lot more to that decision than just the upfront investment and cost per unit.

DOMESTIC (EUROPE) GARMENT MANUFACTURING COMPANIES

Advantages

• Typically higher manufacturing quality
• Typically higher labor standards
• Easy and efficient communication
• Similar time zones and holiday schedule
• Marketability and brandability of North American/ Europe -made goods
• Faster shipping times and cheaper shipping costs
• No import duties or tariffs
• Intellectual property right protection
• Higher payment security
• reduces the human footprint
• High-quality materials
• true water filtration/treatments and sustainability in dyeing
• Consume the power generated by green sources
• Environmentally friendly

Disadvantages

• Higher manufacturing costs
• Typically smaller choice of potential factories/ and the best clothing supplier are full  with big brands
• Smaller product choice (many items are exclusively made overseas these days)

PHOTOGRAPHY COURTESY OF @PANOSPICTURES/PUBLICEYE

OVERSEAS CLOTHING SUPPLIERS COMPANIES

Advantages

• Lower manufacturing costs
• A greater number of manufacturers/factories to choose from
• Well established directories like Alibaba have made it easy to find potential suppliers

Disadvantages

• Lower perceived quality from customers
• Typically lower manufacturing and labor standards
• Import clearance and customs brokers to deal with
• Potential language and communication barriers
• Significant timezone differences
• Cultural differences in negotiating and schedules
• More costly to visit and verify the manufacturer
• Longer shipping times
• Import tariffs
• Higher shipping costs
• Lower payment security
• NO Environmentally friendly
• Illegitimate certificates
• High footprint
• Process of dye toxics and pollutants

Where to Look for Clothing Manufacturers(garment manufacturing) CFB create fashion brand

Where to Look for Clothing Manufacturers(garment manufacturing)

Now that you have a better idea of the pros and cons of finding manufacturing partners domestically and abroad, you can begin your search.

Google

“As you probably can imagine, searching Google is a great way to find clothing manufacturing companies if you’re willing to dig deep and work hard to find them.

The most important thing to keep in mind when searching Google is that it’s not easy to find them. Factories and manufacturers notoriously do a poor job of keeping their websites updated and optimized for modern times. That means that most of the factory websites are very outdated and aren’t optimized for Google searches.

What this all boils down to is that fact that you’ll have to dig deep. Really deep. It’s not unusual to have to parse 20-30 pages on Google before finding what you’re looking for. So don’t give up.

Make sure you also try a variety of search terms. You might just be searching for “t-shirt manufacturer” but you may need to be less specific and search for keywords like “apparel manufacturer” too.”

How explain Richard Lazazzera

Local Fashion Schools & Incubators

Another great place to find manufacturers for your clothing and apparel brand is by calling or visiting a local fashion school or fashion and apparel incubator.

These institutions are rich sources for vetted manufacturers since these schools and incubators tend to have good relationships with many manufacturers and make use of them regularly.

Try giving them a call or emailing them and ask for referrals to local manufacturers that can help you with your project.

Referrals- what you shouldn’t do

As you’re using the methods listed in this post and talking to potential Clothing Suppliers and garment manufacturing, you’re very likely to hit a bunch of dead ends.

Maybe your order will be too small for a potential garment manufacturing collection , maybe they can’t do what you need them to do, or maybe they are just too busy to take on new customers.

While these may feel like dead ends and setbacks, you can still make the most of each of these conversations by asking every person and company you speak with if they know any other factories or manufacturers that they could recommend.

The fact that they are in this industry likely means they have some good friends and contacts they can likely share with you to help you get closer to finding your perfect clothing manufacturing partner.

Sustainable Clothing Suppliers or cheap garment manufacturing

A way to reuse textile waste is by recycling the materials and remodeling them back into their original form. Minimizing the usage of raw materials can reduce the textile industry’s pressure on the environment, while the recycling process requires a great amount of energy, meaning material reuse could be a great alternative.

At the Materials Experience Center (MEC), powered by PTIMG, they champion sustainability and material experimentation in order to contribute to a circular production of yarn, making synergy between material and design.

The same goes for CFB textile producers in Portugal focused on their zero carbon footprint project or water ink Screen printers focused on creating more direct to garment fabrications along with waterless printing solutions.

Final verdict: How do I choose a wholesale clothing distributor?

if you care about the environment, you should make your clothing brand your image.
The public is increasingly concerned with the environment, because the environment damage is no longer the future, it is now!

CFB believes in striving hard for making a change in this society.

Our input revolves around the ultimate effort to have a fruitful output for the environment.

Our globally recognized quality has been winning hearts for the last three decades. We are looking forward to expanding our eco-friendly business sector and reducing the carbon footprints in many more coming decades.

Credits:

https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesagencycouncil/2020/12/01/circular-economy-and-the-textile

https://www.abetterlemonadestand.com/clothing-manufacturers/

wholesale boutique clothing suppliers wholesale retail clothing suppliers boutique wholesale clothing suppliers wholesale clothing suppliers in china How do I find a clothing brand vendor? What is a clothing supplier? What is the best website for wholesale clothing? clothing suppliers wholesale